How To Know What Your Readers Like?

It is not magic, but magical. You initially never know how to keep your readers – true story. But as you start building up your presence it will be quite easy for you to get a hold on this.

To start with, let's do this.

Go to your Google Analytics Dashboard. On the left, you will see a little module called “Content” > “Site Content”. Expand it and look for “Landing pages” and click on it.

Now you will get a list of top landing pages on your blog.

If you look carefully you will see a column titled “Avg. Visit Duration”. If you click on it, you can sort your pages based on average visit duration.

Find out those pages of your blog where people spend time the most.

Take a look at those posts and see what features are common; or what features could have attracted people to stay longer.

Bear in mind, though, this factor (the average visit duration) is not just affected by one factor. People could have simply stayed till the end because they were looking for the same thing (that you were dealing with in that post).

But there could still be other parameters, too!

Yet, if you find a list of posts on a particular category where people stay longer, this means that your audience love posts on that category; so start posting more useful content in the same category.

On the other hand, if you can’t find a common “category” or a topic in those posts, then there is something else in those posts that keep your audience.

It could be your writing style, the structure of the post or something similar. Find it out. And make more like those.

Alternatively, you can also use your own instinct to find out what people want.

Go to popular blogs in your niche and see what posts make you stay until the end.

Have you recently read a post from Problogger.net till the end? Why did you do so? Find out what made you stay. Use that in your posts. Simple.

Why Not Social Count?

I could have simply told you to find out those posts from your blog that have more social shares. But the posts that get shared a lot doesn’t mean they’ve made your readers stay until the end.

Some posts simply get shared because the heading is good. For some, the image in the post might be good.

And I don’t need to mention that most posts get shared immediately after your readers scan your posts, click the share button and then move away.

Write Easily Digestible Posts

If you give your readers too much to chew, they’re surely going to leave.

Remember, as I said earlier, the online world is busy and the mindset of people is different as well.

They want easily consumable content.

How to make your posts easily digestible?

Focus on one problem in your posts.

Instead of reaching out to hundreds of perspectives/solutions for a problem, take one and go deeper. Explore one or two things in detail. Don’t give too much.

Use Eye-catching Images And Screenshots

I cannot stress the importance visuals when it comes to online content. If you take a look around in your social media profiles, you will find that visually appealing content goes viral (even for no reason).

Visuals add spice to your content and they give that nice treatment your content deserves (given that your content is worthy in the first place!).

And, don’t get off-track here – I am not telling you to add loads of images on your posts so that people will keep their eyes hooked on to them till the end. That’s not your goal.

And yes, although your images could get a lot of shares and pins, that’s not your goal again!

But images make it easier for people to stay on your posts. That’s it.

And if you are doing tutorial kind posts, make liberal use of screenshots; otherwise, people won’t get what you are talking about and they might leave because your post is not understandable.

Use Varying Patterns

Monotonous posts are boring and people tend to jump off! Your post needs to be entertaining and sporty enough to keep them longer.

For this, you can introduce “foreign bodies” in your posts. What are they?

You have to make your post digestible both for those who are willing to read it in full and to those that only wish to skim.

If people are trained that your posts are easily digestible, they will stay until the end.

Also, make sure you break the post into short paragraphs with one or two lines per paragraph.

It makes it easier on the eyes and to grasp. Avoid long paragraphs and large blocks of text in any case.

Don’t Make Your Post Too Long

Many bloggers often have wrong notions about how long their blog posts have to be. They simply think that writing long posts are good.

Don’t get me wrong here – writing long posts are good both for your readers (when you discuss a topic in-depth and provide useful and actionable tips) and for SEO (yes, longer content ranks better).

But don’t make a post long just for the sake of it. If you can tell what you have to tell in just 400 words, be it. Or if you really need 4000 words, so be it (for longer posts make sure you use the tips above to make them digestible).

I like the way you structured your post, Jane. Another plus for easy reading. You began with strong rationales, insights your readers might not have thought of, and shared valuable takeaways – including a great CTA.

I agree that thinking about what appeals to readers before and while writing is key. Including all 3 content elements: interesting, informational and educational- may raise the value.

Offer rewards, I.e. email mentions for some blog comments that show you've read the post, guest blog opportunities, randomly pop over to their blog and maybe share a post, give free advice, ways to give you value before a request (ie a social share).

A THANK-YOU to Sue for NOT having pop ups interrupt reading her fabulous posts!:)

Understanding the psychology of the readers plays the major role here.

#1. The readers read the text below the each of the subheads in your content more attentively. So, I can say that for visitors to stay long on your site and read your content crafting introductions to the subheadings as carefully as you craft main intro of your blog post is important.

#2. People tend to also read the text immediately preceding any captivating image more focused. This is is also worth a note.

#3. I liked the idea of your varying patterns. It's great. I use plugins like Thrive content builder on my blog to include content boxes, quotes, and interactive bullets. I noticed my dwell time spiking up nowadays.

#4. Another point is to dig up the Analytics data. It will show you the interests of the visitors of your blog. Example, most of my blog readers are interested in photography (shutterbugs) along with digital marketing and blogging. So, with this data, I can tailor my content so as to appeal my audience according to their audience and keep them hooked to my site.

crafting introductions to the subheadings as carefully as you craft main intro of your blog post is important.

#2. People tend to also read the text immediately preceding any captivating image more focused. This is is also worth a note.

#3. I liked the idea of your varying patterns. It’s great. I use plugins like Thrive content builder on my blog to include content boxes, quotes, and interactive bullets. I noticed my dwell time spiking up nowadays.

#4. Another point is to dig up the Analytics data. It will show you the interests of the visitors of your blog. Example, most of my blog readers are interested in photography (shutterbugs) along with digital marketing and blogging. So, with this data, I can tailor my content so as to appeal my audience according to their audience and keep them hooked to my site.

Great post! Very relevant and well written. Some of your tips have inspired me to make a couple of changes thanks. I think a lot of people would benefit from reading this article and use it as a checklist. Thanks for sharing

Indeed, we should always try to focus on single specific problem in our posts and need to fix them with deep analysis. Most of blogs which are floating on internet, they are not able to provide specific solution for specific type problem. Visuals items such as images and screenshot are really helpful to engage our reader with post. Generally, I also follow this rule to break paragraph in every two lines, it is absolutely helpful for reader to digest whole post easily without getting bored. Eventually, thanks for sharing your amazing ideology regarding above topic.